The first thing I noticed was the name. “Is that… a Star Wars reference?” It is: the band Ben Quad named themselves after Episode I – The Phantom Menace podracing legend Ben Quadinaros, who had a rough time at the Boonta Eve Classic when his vehicle exploded at the starting line. But it turned out to be a fitting choice for a band name, as Ben Quad is also exploding… in popularity.
Ben Quad describe themselves as “Oklahoma post-emo and butt rock.” That’s one way of putting it. Another option is “No. 1 hot new band in town.” On their new EP, Ephemera, the group — vocalist Sam Wegrzynski, bassist Henry Shields, guitarist Edgar Viveros, and drummer Isaac Young — has gone in a heavier, more screamo-y direction. It’s their first release since signing to label Pure Noise Records, the home of fellow rippers Drug Church, Koyo, and Knocked Loose, and also their most cathartic. “We did that original screamo track as a flex,” Wegrzynski said in a band bio referring to 2022 single “You’re Part Of It” (over two million plays on Spotify), “and it then becoming our most popular song gave us the courage to go all out.”
I recently spoke to Sam and Edgar while Ben Quad were on tour with Prince Daddy & the Hyena (ahead of a Pure Noise showcase and headlining shows) about the EP, merch, emo-adjacent genres, video games, and, yes, Star Wars.
What made you decide to go in a more aggressive direction for Ephemera?
Edgar: A lot of people have been asking us that. And a lot of people have been saying like, “Hey, did the label influence you?” Literally, like two years ago, we put out a single called “You’re Part Of It” that was kind of in the same style. I was basically flexing and saying, like, hey, we can do this, too. And we like that style of music, so we just put it out. It ended up being our biggest song yet, and still is. And so I made a joke tweet that was like, hey, if this song gets 10,000 streams by the end of the week, we’ll make a whole EP out of it. And, you know, it got the 10,000 streams. People were super stoked, and then two years later, we finally put that guy out.
Now the song has something like two million streams.
Sam: Yeah, exactly. It was originally just us having fun putting out a different sound, just because we could. It’s like Edgar said, it’s music that we all enjoy in our own time. So we said, ah, screw it. Let’s make something, you know, kind of screamy, kind of fun. We had no idea that it would be our biggest one, and that this would be such an anticipated thing for our fans.
I don’t know who runs the Twitter account… Actually, who does run the Twitter account?
Edgar: It’s mostly me.
There was a recent tweet where you referred to the title track on the EP as the “proudest we’ve ever been of a song.” Besides it kicking ass, what made it a favorite?
Edgar: You know, it’s a favorite for me because I think we really pulled it out of a well that is super close to my heart. It, weirdly enough, is the song that came together the quickest. It’s the most confident we’ve ever been in our songwriting. We wrote that while we were recording in two days. And so one night I just was like, we need a fifth song. So I just cranked out the whole song structure. The next day, we did basically all the vocals in one day. I gave Isaac the song structure, and he just knocked out the drums in a single night. So it’s my favorite song, because it’s one of those things where it’s like, okay, we’re competent songwriters now, and it feels great being able to just go in a room and write something that I think is great. And, you know, everyone seems to like it.
Sam: I’m also really happy with it. I think initially that song was going to have vocal parts during the first minute of it. But I remember when Edgar wrote the guitar part in the studio, I was like, “Dude, I don’t want to sing over that. I just want to listen to that. I think singing over that is going to take away from how freaking sick these riffs are.” So, it was the first time we’ve ever done that, where we literally said, you know, we have songs with intros, but this was a whole minute of a song with absolutely no vocals. And it was a bit of a gamble, but I think it paid off. I think it speaks for itself. People are loving it.
Why did you decide on signing with Pure Noise Records?
Sam: It was really cool. We were fortunate enough to have a few different labels reaching out to us at the time and trying to, you know, get a deal going. We felt like the prettiest girl at the ball. You know, everybody was trying their best to bend the rules of the industry for us, because we’re a little more adamant. We’re not big enough to be in a position where we can ask for anything we want in contracts. But we were asking for as much as we could as far as the artist side, owning masters and all that kind of stuff. Pure Noise to us, they were so willing to do anything. I think it was nice to see that they genuinely believed in us, as opposed to believing in the image that Ben Quad could be. There were some other labels that immediately started talking about marketing and all that, which is cool, but in my head, I was like, “Oh, well, you guys just want the image right now. And you’re already thinking about how, you know, to sell the image.” We don’t even really know what our image is, you know what I mean? We’re still trying to figure out what our sound is. Pure Noise genuinely seemed like they were just down for the ride. They support us. They believe in anything that we want to do. It was crazy, you know, they hit us up before we announced the EP or anything. Obviously, no one knew that we were doing the screamo thing next, and that was the first thing we told them. They were so down. They were more than happy to help with that kind of thing. I think they were actually excited about it. I think they were kind of stoked that we were going that way. They seem like people who really do care about the band, and not just about how much the band can make them.
You mentioned figuring out your sound. Does being tagged with a genre label — typically with Ben Quad, it’s emo — ever feel constricting?
Edgar: You know what? I think, in a way, it does, but we don’t care. We’re just putting out music that we like, and regardless if people consider it screamo, emo, post-hardcore, whatever label you put on it, we’re just gonna put out what we like and whatever label people apply to us, you know, if it’s cool and trending, fuck it.
Sam: Our new stuff is getting put on the metal playlist on Spotify, and it’s like, alright!
What’s your favorite piece of Ben Quad merch that you’ve either sold yourselves or seen a fan wear?
Edgar: I think my favorite one right now is, we have this pink hoodie with “Rawr XD.” We were like, what if we lean into this scenecore thing, because we’re not a scenecore band into it. So it’s like this neon pink hoodie with a really textured monster on it that I just drew on a limb with marker, and I had someone make it into a design. And yeah, it looks cool. It looks like it comes straight out of Hot Topic. With that kind of stuff, I’m not afraid to lean on different things. Like, you know, let’s make the scenecore merch. Let’s make the emotional hardcore-style shirts. It’s all fun stuff.
Sam: I really like that one. But we did one in, like, 2019 through a scam company. We did not know it was a scam at the time, but it was. This company was reaching out to all these bands in Tulsa, Oklahoma, about doing a limited edition, one day drop of a merch item. We’d make the design and it would just be up for 24 hours. They’d do all the shipping, selling, all that stuff, using our likeness or whatever, use whatever design we gave them. Now, the shirt that came out was incredible… I don’t even know how to describe it. It’s a photo of a bunch of puppies, but they’re outlined in neon and pink and blue. A very loud shirt. And then our name is written in the most abhorrent, scribbly writing underneath it. The funny part is, we never got any money for that. The shirts did ship, but the company then completely disappeared after the shirt shipped, and nothing ever happened from that. That’s a fun one, because if I see someone wearing that, I’m like, “Oh shit, you must have lived in Oklahoma.”
Have you ever done merch with Ben Quadinaros on it?
Sam: I think we have one shirt with Quadinaros on it.
Edgar: We have a really old one that says “Ben Quadinaros” on a shirt. I think it’s like a pizza design on it. I think I have one sitting in my closet. Maybe once a year, I’ll run into someone that still has that.
“Blood For The Blood God” appears in a Rock Band DLC. If another one of your songs could be in a video game, what video game would you pick?
Edgar: It’s so easy.
Both: Fortnite.
Sam: Fortnite radio, let’s go.
You just want to see Peter Griffin flossing to one of your songs.
Edgar: I’ve been playing Fortnite every night of this tour.
I know the year isn’t over yet, but looking ahead to 2025, what are some of the things you hope to achieve?
Edgar: The goal is LP2. I think that’s the biggest goal, making a follow-up to all this. And who knows, it might be a combination of sounds. It might be its own thing. Like we said, we do our own thing, but that is going to be the biggest goal. Next goal, I think this is a continual goal, is to tour forever. Tour forever, write good music. That’s basically all we want to do.
Sam: I also want to try to dip our toes in festivals next year. We were really busy with the EP and setting up the label and, you know, finding our footing in this whole thing. And I think next year, I would love to do a festival run in the summer.
What can you say about LP2?
Edgar: I think there’s some bones here and there, but I think once we get back from tour, that’s where the real cooking is going to start.
Sam: And I’m so proud of us because we do so much writing in the studio. I think it’s easy to get distracted when you’re writing at home or when you’re trying to do anything. There’s so many things that can catch your eye and ear, and being with the boys, being with the whole band and writing together, is important.
Ephemera is out 10/25 via Pure Noise. You can find more information here.